Understanding The Recruitment Cycle and How to Hire Better and Faster

recruitment cycle

As a company, hiring talent is becoming more difficult every day and every year. The recruitment process for businesses regardless of industry is growing longer and becoming harder.

Companies need to learn how to get a better understanding of the recruitment cycle and process so they can hire strategically, achieve their goals, and grow.

But what is a recruitment cycle? What are the steps involved in a recruitment process? How does it take to fill jobs?

These are the questions we’ll be answering in this blog post. We’ll also show you how you can speed up your hiring process, save time, and find qualified candidates with Tawzef.

What is a recruitment process?

 

what is a recruitment process

what is a recruitment process

A recruitment process is a process a company undergoes to find suitable candidates and employees for its teams and departments.

Also known as a hiring process or a recruitment cycle, it involves several stages. It starts with creating a job description and ends with hiring a candidate.

Though in some cases, the recruitment process may extend beyond the hiring and until the candidate completes their probation period.

 

Recruitment vs selection: What is the difference?

recruitment vs selection

recruitment vs selection

People often use ‘recruitment’ and ‘selection’ interchangeably. While they are both related to hiring, they’re not the same thing.

Recruitment is the process for hiring candidates. As mentioned above, recruitment starts with identifying needs, creating a job description, and so on.

Meanwhile, selection involves choosing the suitable candidate or candidates from a list of shortlisted ones.

This means that selection is one of the steps of the recruitment cycle and process.

The stages of the recruitment cycle

stages of the recruitment cycle

recruitment cycle stages

Let’s explore the main stages of the hiring process.

Recruitment cycle step 1: Identify the role and business needs

The first step in the recruitment process is to identify what your company needs and the skills a candidate should have to fulfill this role.

In this step, you should also determine what your available budget is. This may impact the number of years you may seek in a candidate.

 

Recruitment cycle step 2: Create a job description

Now it’s time to create a job description that clearly explains what the role entails and who should apply.

Using a generic copy-and-paste description means you’ll get lots of candidates, many of whom will be unqualified for your vacancy.

 

Recruitment cycle step 3: Search for candidates

Share the job opening across various social media platforms and your company website. You can also ask for referrals from employees inside your company.

 

Recruitment cycle step 4: Start screening 

The screening stage is where you review the CVs or resumes you’ve received. You then prioritize candidates based on who offers the highest potential for your available vacancy.

You may choose to conduct a phone or virtual screening before you move on to the technical screening, if applicable.

At this point, you may receive hundreds of resumes for a single job opening. You have to filter through all these resumes to find the top fits.

 

Recruitment cycle step 5: Conduct a technical and/or in-person interview

Now it’s time to see if the candidates whose resumes you’ve picked have the skills they say they do.

Depending on the role, you may have a technical interview or test as part of your recruitment process.

Roles like translation, content writing, graphic design, software engineering, programming, and network security are among the top roles where a test or technical test is involved.

It helps you see candidates’ actual skills and determine if they apply to or fit your available vacancy.

To save time, many companies choose to combine the technical test with an in-person interview.

In this stage, you may also use a psychometric assessment to see the candidate’s non-technical skills.

 

Recruitment cycle step 6: Review technical tests 

Now you should review the technical tests candidates have completed and see which of them fits your role best.

If you’re using a psychometric test as part of your hiring process, you’ll want to review that too.

 

Recruitment cycle step 7: Selection

Based on the technical test results, your conversation with candidates, and the in-person interviews, it’s time to select the top candidates for this role.

By this stage, you should have narrowed down candidates from 100 resumes to around 5 candidates.

 

Recruitment cycle step 8: Make a job offer 

Once you’ve selected your top candidates, you’ll need to prioritize them based on their potential and your needs to see who you’ll present with a job offer first.

You should include a deadline for your job offer in case a candidate doesn’t accept your offer. That way you can move on to the second-best and so on.

 

Recruitment cycle step 9: Finalize and Onboard 

Assuming your candidate accepts your job offer, the next step is to agree on when they’ll start working with you. Be sure to conduct employee onboarding either before they join or on their first day.

How long does a recruitment process take?

how long does a recruitment process take

how long does a recruitment process take

As you can see, the hiring process involves various steps and stages, many of which are time-consuming.

Companies that don’t plan ahead or make room for handover among employees often try to rush the recruitment process. And end up frustrated with bad hires and worse results.

According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average hiring process takes roughly 42 days. That’s almost 1.5 months.

However, some industries and roles may require a longer—or shorter—period of time. Hiring fresh graduates and interns will take less time compared to hiring a marketing manager or sales director.

While faster hiring may give you an edge over your competitors, you need to be sure you’re not doing ‘panic hiring’ or fast hiring that results in unsuitable candidates and a high employee turnover.

 

What is a psychometric test in recruitment?

One of the important elements of the recruitment cycle today is conducting psychometric tests or assessments.

A psychometric test is a pre-hiring test that helps companies understand a candidate’s various personality traits.

While there are many types of psychometric tests used in recruitment, the basic traits that these tests measure include strengths, weaknesses, abilities, attitudes, and blind spots.

Psychometric tests can even show if a potential candidate is suitable for a job or not. In other words, psychometric assessments help companies hire better.

There are specific tests for selecting entry-level candidates, sales representatives, and candidates with entrepreneur skills and drive.

How does Tawzef recruit employees for your company?

tawzef recruitment cycle

tawzef recruitment cycle

So far, we’ve covered various hiring concepts, what the recruitment cycle is, and how it works. Now it’s time to give you a peak into how a decades’ old HR recruitment company and consulting firm like Tawzef goes about the hiring process for its clients.

Business may choose to outsource one or more of their hiring needs. These usually fall under manpower outsourcing.

At Tawzef, the recruitment cycle begins internally before we present the top candidates to your company.

We have a number of steps that ensure we offer the best results and candidates for our clients.

These steps begin with:

1)  The job order:

Here we identify the role, requirements, and business needs to create a clear job description.

2)  Brief from the business development department:

Our business development team gives our recruitment team the full brief about the job order.

The recruitment team contacts you or your hiring manager and gets all the required information via a 10-minute phone conversation.

3)  Tawzef searches for candidates:

We require 3 to 5 business days to search for candidates that meet your needs and criteria.

4)  Screening for the first batch of candidates:

This is where our recruitment team screens the resumes received, which may include resumes you send our way.

We select the top candidates who match your job description, conduct an initial phone screening, and present you with those top candidates.

We expect feedback from you within 48 hours, so we can proceed with the next steps of the recruitment cycle.

5)  Technical interview:

Once you’ve selected your best candidates from the list we’ve provided you, you can begin the technical test and interview either at our company or at your company premises. Your hiring manager will be responsible for filtering these candidates based on their test.

6)  Sending the job offer:

Once you’ve selected your best 5 candidates, we send the job offer to the first person on the list. If they decline, we move on to the next candidate. If they accept, we proceed with the next step.

7)  Ensuring new employee fits the job needs:

We ensure you’re satisfied with your new hire and monitor their performance in their first few months (3 m0nths).

It’s worth mentioning that if the first batch of candidate resumes does not meet your criteria, Tawzef continues to send you qualified resumes in unlimited batches till you’re satisfied.

 

Conclusion

The recruitment cycle is long and tedious. And the more technical the industry or the role, the harder it is to find candidates.

While the standard hiring process can take 1.5 months, it can also take much longer if your job description comes with many requirements.

Trying to cut costs by combining roles into a single role usually results in a high employee turnover, employee burnout, and bad employer branding.

Moreover, finding and hiring the best candidates means you need a clear salary structure in your company. This helps you see where new hires fit, how much you’ll pay them, and what kinds of compensation and benefits you’ll offer them.

If you’re looking to hire one or more team members, or open a new department in your company,Tawzef is here to help.

As a leading recruitment agency in Egypt, our experience covers almost every industry in the local Egyptian market. We’re also well-versed in overseas recruitment.

Tawzef also offers various HR outsourcing services such as payroll, creating an HR strategy, and more. We also help companies hire and outsource their call centers.

If you’re looking to fill roles in your company, get in touch with Tawzef and we’ll ensure your recruitment process is smooth and efficient.

 

 

Share On:

Also On Tawzef Blogs

8 tips to manage multiple teams

Growth, Latest Articles

How to Manage Multiple Teams: Follow These 8 Tips
10 tips to create a successful bulk recruitment strategy

Human Resources, Latest Articles

10 Tips to Create a Successful Bulk Recruitment Strategy
offshore constructions offshoring service provider for construction projects

Latest Articles, outsourcing

9 Reasons to Hire an Offshoring Service Provider for Your Offshore Construction Projects
6 expert tips to help you create a training and development budget

Growth, Latest Articles

6 Expert Tips to Help You Create a Training & Development Budget